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Counting Down

We’ve thought about this
and talked about this so much for so long, and now it’s almost here. The sale
of the club is set to be finalized on December 2nd. Silvio Berlusconi is
staying on as Honorary President, but both Barbara Berlusconi and Adriano
Galliani look set to leave. After all we’ve been through with Milan this past
five years, a big part of me wants to count down the days, even the hours, and
have a big celebration, bigger than New Year’s Eve. But then that nagging
question I’ve always asked myself: would a foreign entity buying Milan be worse
than what we’ve gone through? And then I get nervous and want to think about
stopping time. So where are you? Apprehensive and afraid? Somewhere in the
middle? Or counting down?

Yeah, that might be the perfect awkward celebration for a time like this

With recent success, the
mood is pretty good amongst fans. But we don’t have to look back very far to
find the douchebaggery. Like this summer when Berlusconi dragged negotiations
out on the sale so that we missed out entirely on the transfer market. And
remember the days when we actually had a douchebaggery meter here? To alert
another Galliani special free transfer, Berlusconi telling the fans we should
be grateful when there was nothing to be grateful for, or Galliani publicly
announcing Ambrosini’s contract ending and Montolivo’s captaincy without having
talked to either Ambrosini or Abbiati first? Not to mention the sale of players like Ibra & Silva. Yeah, I’m not going to miss that.

But so far, what we’ve
seen isn’t good, either. Fassone & Mirabelli are scouting players that Montella
has been careful to publicly announce he doesn’t want, while not talking to him
at all about what he does want. Maldini not coming back to the club and the
conversations around that showed that the hierarchy is not built for success,
or even for football. It’s all about power and decisions made by those least
experienced. In short, we could have bigger problems sooner than we think. I
mean look at Inter. And they even have Zanetti. They spent all of this money on
quality players, but they can’t win when it’s most expected. That could be us
sooner rather than later.

Montella bringing the calm before the storm

There is some hope. Not
only are our young players outperforming everyone’s expectations, there is a
sense of calmness and confidence that Montella has instilled within the team.
Like a protective bubble, with this sale not seeming to loom over any of them.
While it is likely that the new management will invest in some quality players
come January because we are still not playing great football, that fear that
seemed to impact the team before with the revolving door transfer policy is
nowhere to be seen. But can Montella continue to shield them if new players and
egos are brought in? Will he get a say in the new players, or will management
just hand them to him? A lot of questions about the future remain.

It’s hard not to get
excited about new money and new investments. But it’s also hard to think of
things shaking up and changing – possibly for the worse. While it will be great
to get rid of Galliani’s cancerous wage spending and horrific free transfers,
it is going to be really strange having a mercato without his “3 days of the
condor” grandiose statements. It’s going to be weird to see Barbara go – so
much potential and so little power. But that stadium should have happened, and
it’s a shame that it didn’t for her. We may be stuck with Silvio’s helicopter
trips to Milanello to scare/motivate the team and his megalomaniac and racist
comments in the media, but I have a feeling that the new management will do
their best to shelter everyone from him. It’s impossible to know what the
future holds, even if we do have some information with which to speculate. So
the question is -- December 2nd: Are you afraid? Cautiously optimistic? Or
counting down?